Endorsement of the interdenominational movement to purge filth from motion pictures will be recorded editorially in the July issue of the Orthodox Union, a magazine published monthly by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, it was announced yesterday by William Weiss, president of the organization. In the editorial Rabbi William Margolis, editor-in-chief, urges greater moral education of the public in order to secure permanent results in the campaign.
“We welcome the Legion of Decency,” the editorial begins, “sponsored by the illustrious leaders of several faiths, to purge the stage and screen of filth.”
On other fronts the campaign received additional support.
In a report issued yesterday, Rev. John T. McNicholas, chairman of the Roman Catholic Bishops motion picture committee, stated that “public opinion must be aroused as the strongest barrier against the immoral cinema.”
The report, published in the August issue of the Ecclesiastical Review, emphasizes the stand of other groups in the drive for clean films.
In a discussion last night over station WEVD, Bishop Francis J. McConnel supported the position of the clergy in the movement. Robert I. Broder, founder of the Association for the Preservation of the Freedom of the Screen and Stage, stated he was “in favor of cleaner films, but that he was opposed to censorship, and he declared that the participation of the clergy amounted to censorship.”
William F. X. Geoghan, Brooklyn District Attorney returning from a trip to Europe, announced himself wholly in accord with the fight of the ministry to cleanse the films. He was opposed to the glorification of the gangster in films as being conducive to crime.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
